{"id":714236,"date":"2023-08-28T16:00:47","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T14:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=714236"},"modified":"2023-08-28T16:00:47","modified_gmt":"2023-08-28T14:00:47","slug":"this-is-how-little-money-the-poorest-in-south-africa-are-living-on-each-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/714236\/this-is-how-little-money-the-poorest-in-south-africa-are-living-on-each-month\/","title":{"rendered":"This is how little money the poorest in South Africa are living on each month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Statistics South Africa has published its updated national poverty lines for 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Poverty lines are important tools that allow for the statistical reporting of poverty levels and patterns and the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of poverty reduction programmes and policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The primary purpose of the national poverty lines is to provide a tool for the statistical measurement of money-metric poverty. The lines contain both food and non-food components of household consumption expenditure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>StatsSA tracks three lines \u2013 the food poverty line, the lower-bound poverty line, and the upper-bound poverty line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The&nbsp;<strong>food poverty<\/strong>&nbsp;line is now<strong>&nbsp;R760 per person per month<\/strong> (R25 a day), up from R663 previously (+14.6%). This refers to the amount of money that an individual needs to afford the minimum required daily energy intake. This is also commonly referred to as the \u201cextreme\u201d poverty line;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The&nbsp;<strong>lower-bound<\/strong>&nbsp;poverty line is now<strong>&nbsp;R1,058 per person per month<\/strong> (R35 a day), up from R945 previously (+12.0%). This refers to the food poverty line plus the average amount derived from non-food items of households whose total expenditure is equal to the food poverty line;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The&nbsp;<strong>upper-bound<\/strong>&nbsp;poverty line is now<strong>&nbsp;R1,558 per person per month<\/strong> (R52 a day), up from R1,417 previously (+10.0%). This refers to the food poverty line plus the average amount derived from non-food items of households whose food expenditure is equal to the food poverty line.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The below graph shows how the inflation-adjusted poverty lines have changed from 2006 to 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Poverty-lines.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"843\" height=\"744\" src=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Poverty-lines.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-714244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Poverty-lines.png 843w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Poverty-lines-300x265.png 300w, https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Poverty-lines-768x678.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 843px) 100vw, 843px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>While the updated national poverty lines help establish a government baseline, they do not accurately reflect the plight of many poor South Africans, who often end up substantially worse off as they provide for themselves and their family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice &amp; Dignity group (PMBEJD), approximately 30.4 million people in South Africa live below the old upper-bound poverty line of R1,417. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The group estimates that 13.8 million people live below the food poverty line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s high levels of poverty are also reflected in the latest data on grant dependence in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the statistics body, social grants remain a crucial safety net for many, especially in the poorer provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stats SA&#8217;s latest General Household Survey for 2022 revealed that, nationally, grants were the second most important source of income (50.2%) for households after salaries (59.7%) in 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite being listed as second overall,\u00a0<strong>grants were still the primary source of income for one quarter (23.5%) of all households in South Africa.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s grants also saw an increase in 2023, with many ranging from below the food poverty line to above the upper-bound poverty line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana presented the changes in the 2023 National Budget in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The increases in social grants for 2023 were as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The old age grant went up from R1,985 to R2,085<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The old age grants for those over the age of 75 increased to R2,105<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Grants for war veterans increased to R2,105 from R2,005<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Disability grants went up to R2,085<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Foster care grant increased by 5.1% to R1,125<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Care dependency grants rose to R2,085 from R1,985<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Child support grants went up by 5.2% to R505<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Grant-in-aid rose to R505 \u2013 up by 5.2%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/711810\/south-africas-shocking-dependence-on-grants\/\">South Africa\u2019s shocking dependence on grants<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa has adjusted its national poverty lines, showing what the poorest of the poor in the country are getting by on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":682055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-714236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714236"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":714250,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714236\/revisions\/714250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/682055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}